Will I be a herbalist?

Today I've been mucking about with medicinal herbs. I had this idea that this could mean I would be creating an apothecary but when I checked in the dictionary, it doesn't. But I have to share that anyway because I think 'apothecary' is such a fabulous word, much better than pharmacist which it turns out to mean, or chemist which is even more banal sounding.

So today I did some more seed sowing in propogator number three, including some echinacea, also known as purple coneflower and good for strengthening the immune system. I also sowed some elecampane. Elecampane is new to me but this is the blurb that got me interested:

Highly regarded medicinal herb found in Chinese, Indian Ayurvedic and traditional European cultures. While the yellow spider daisy-like flowers can reach up to 2.5m tall in late spring, it is the root that has all the goodies in it. After the second season the dried root is used as a lung decongestant, a chi tonic, diuretic, to stimulate the appetite, candied confectionary and as an external treatment for viral skin lesions.

Given the height, I might put it in amongst my young punga trees to give them some shade. It can hang out with the giant sunflowers which are going there for the same reason.

Had fabulous weather here today which meant I got be outside gardening for the afternoon. The nanny student is long gone though, so I had to multi-task like proper mothers. That meant that Fionn fell out of trees (sometimes on purpose but not always) and Brighid, the gorgeous compliant lass that she is, slept or watched one of us from the pushchair.